Delray To Pick Panel On Project

DELRAY BEACH — Members of a new agency that will oversee plans and provide financing for revitalizing the city`s crumbling center are scheduled to be named tonight by the City Council.

Formation of the seven-member Community Redevelopment Agency follows a recommendation made last month by the Atlantic Avenue Task Force as part of its $3.76 million plan for renovating the central city.

That plan is expected to serve as the groundwork for an overall community redevelopment plan prepared by the new agency, officials said Monday.

``I`d presume that at least some of the task force plan would be included, if not all of it,`` Assistant City Manager Bob Barcinski. ``It`s a good starting point.``

The CRA would raise money for its plan through tax increment financing within the redevelopment area, officials said.

The financing measure would freeze city property tax revenues at current levels within the area. Future increases in assessed property values, and the accompanying surplus taxes, would go to the CRA rather than the city under the proposal.

Chief Building Official Jim Johnson, who served as chairman of the task force that proposed the agency, will recommend a CRA area that includes the city`s Enterprise Zone, downtown and almost the entire length of Federal Highway within the city`s limits.

The Enterprise Zone extends roughly from Swinton Avenue to just west of Congress Avenue, between Linton Boulevard and Lake Ida Road. Tax incentives are offered to businesses operating within or hiring residents of the zone.

Johnson said officials have not gauged what impact the CRA would have on the city`s property tax rate. He said, however, the redevelopment plan is aimed at keeping declining property values from draining city tax revenues.

``If you assume that property values have peaked and are beginning to decline, it won`t have an impact,`` Johnson said of the tax increment financing method.

Plans submitted by the Atlantic Avenue Task Force are expected to take up to four years to complete.